Facebook announced the Instant Articles feature in May 2015, with the social network looking to bring full news articles straight to the News Feed of users.
The feature was launched in October 2015 for iOS users and rolled out in December 2015 for Android users, with the fast-loading news articles bearing a lightning bolt icon on the upper right corner to identify themselves as Instant Articles. Facebook has been working with a select few hundred publishers to place their content into the social network. Some of the initial partners include BBC News, Buzzfeed, National Geographic and The New York Times.
With Instant Articles expanded to a wide range of users, Facebook will now be looking to increase the number of publishers that is taking advantage of the feature.
The social network reveals that it will be opening up the Instant Articles program to all publishers on April 12 at its F8 conference. Facebook said that while it was receiving feedback and improving Instant Articles, it was also developing tools, so that more publishers can participate.
The post reiterated that publishers have complete control over how their content looks, along with the data and ads associated with the stories. Publishers also have the ability to either place their own direct-sold advertisements on the Instant Articles and keep all of the revenue or monetize their content through the Facebook Audience Network.
One major takeaway from the post is that Facebook will be expanding Instant Articles to publishers of all sizes, which means that the feature will not only be limited to professional media organizations, but will also be open for individual publishers, freelancers and amateur writers looking to get their content on Facebook.
In addition, these individual writers will also be gaining access to similar revenue sharing options being offered by Facebook to professional media organizations. A spokesperson for the social network stated that all the writers have to do is to join the Audience Network on Facebook and to have an active Facebook page.
The widespread expansion of Instant Articles could be a move by Facebook to bring more quality content to the social network, similar to how the revenue-sharing program on YouTube has attracted talented people to create videos for the website.
The FAQ section dedicated to Instant Articles explains all the technical details that publishers should know before applying to have their content supported by Instant Articles, such as the need for the content to appear on a website and the tools provided by Facebook to prepare the content of publishers for Instant Articles.
